“What’s about 17 inches long, federally threatened and downright adorable? The Allegheny woodrat!” The U.S. Forest Service said in a Facebook post. “We were thrilled to get footage of this ...

This image shows a desert woodrat in a metabolism cage at the University of Utah. The cage allows researchers to measure how much food and water the rat consumes and how much waste it produces.

Caption A captive desert woodrat, also known as a packrat, stands on a rock near branches from a toxic creosote bush. A new University of Utah study shows how microbes in the gut play a key role ...